Customer support (or technical support) is a range of services providing assistance with products or services such as computers, software applications, or related services. In general, customer support services attempt to help the user solve specific problems encountered during the use of such computers or software applications. Customer support may be offered for free or for a fee, offered by a provider of the computer/software application or a third party fee-based service company, delivered over the telephone or via various online media such as e-mail, website, or chat window. Large organizations often provide internal customer support to staff for computer or software application related issues. The Internet is also a common source where users can obtain freely available technical support where experienced users may provide advice and assistance through forums, user communities or other website mechanisms.
A social network is a social structure (e.g., community) made of members (e.g., a person) connected by social relationships such as friendship, kinship, relationships of beliefs, knowledge, prestige, culture, etc. Members of a social network often share interests and activities relating to such social relationships. For example, individual computers linked electronically could form the basis of computer mediated social interaction and networking within a social network community. A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways (e.g., e-mail, instant messaging service, etc.) for users (or members) to interact socially. Examples of computer mediated social network services include Facebook® (a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.), Myspace® (a registered trademark of Myspace, Inc., Beverly Hills, Calif.), Twitter® (a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc., San Francisco, Calif.), LinkedIn® (a registered trademark of LinkedIN, Ltd., Mountain View, Calif.), etc.